Prior to charging full steam into the Christmas/New Year’s holiday season, the provincial government announced $18 million in funding to help police services combat and prevent auto theft.
The Preventing Auto Theft (PAT) grant was presented to 21 projects across Ontario to support new and enhanced crime-fighting measures that focus on prevention, detection, analysis and enforcement.
The St. Thomas Police Service was one of the recipients with a grant of just shy of $609,000 over three years.
To be clear the money is earmarked for the actual theft of vehicles and not break and enter where contents are stolen.
The first question that comes to mind is: is the theft of vehicles a significant threat in St. Thomas?

The best person to head down that road is Insp. Steve Bogart who authored the successful grant application on behalf of the St. Thomas Police Service.
Over a recent 12-month period, noted Bogart, eight vehicles were reported stolen in the city.
Now that may seem insignificant in the context of thefts in large metropolitan areas but, as is the case with real estate, location is everything.
As Bogart explained the money was requested to assist city police with Project Corridor.
“It’s an accurate description of where the City of St. Thomas lies,” pointed out Bogart.
“We’re right in the heart of southwestern Ontario. We’re located on Hwy. 3 and near Hwy. 4 and the 401 and 402, which are corridors and access ways both in and out of our city.”
A prime example of that was on display this past summer in London where during a media conference at the headquarters of the London Police Service, the results of a joint force criminal investigation were on display.
An investigation that began in 2022 in Aylmer resulted in the arrest of four members of Outlaw Motorcycle Groups and eight associates.
The joint force initiative involved police services in St. Thomas, Aylmer and Strathroy-Caradoc with the assistance of the OPP and London Police Services.
In total 52 charges were laid in the drug trafficking investigation.
The entire item can be read here.

“It will end up assisting us with surveillance, equipment, training and when you start training in one area it assists in other areas, too. This will be paid back to the city several times over.”

St. Thomas isn’t immune to these larger city problems, stressed Bogart.
“We are so closely positioned beside London, we’re between Windsor and Niagara. That corridor in which the traffic comes and there is easy access in and easy access out.
“We are very fortunate here in the city that most of our crime is related to the size of our population. So although it is not an epidemic, it’s an increase. Just over the last year, we’re up 21 per cent in auto thefts.
“What that entails is not only the theft of automobiles but the recovery of automobiles in our community and the attempted theft of autos.
“So, overall we are slightly above what the increase in provincial average is.
“This grant is an integral part of crime prevention in our growing city.”
Bogart stressed while the grant itself is directly to combat auto theft, “however the resources that we will put into place are going to spill into all criminal-organized crime.
“It will end up assisting us with surveillance, equipment, training and when you start training in one area it assists in other areas, too.
“This will be paid back to the city several times over.”
He continued, “There are four areas of focus for Project Corridor: investigative enforcement and enhanced resources; coordinated police responses with area policing partners; implementation of surveillance equipment and software; and strengthening education amongst members of the community itself.
“We’re already prepared to be able to buy the equipment, look at the training resources, equipment and vehicles that are part of this grant.”

“We’re going to have the ability to disrupt and deter those who are going to target auto theft in our city.”

Bogart advised surveillance equipment is one of the areas in which the service is looking to expand.
“And we are looking for additional vehicles that will be able to support the investigator. Currently. we don’t have someone who is listed primarily as an auto theft investigator and that is going to pivot and change.
“We will have somebody who is going to be allocated out of our criminal investigation, street crime, property crime unit who will be taking a look at each auto theft and . . . gather intelligence and share and disseminate with the crime trends in the area.”
We asked Bogart if there is a common element linking the eight vehicles stolen over the 12 months.
“There is an element. Some stay local and it can be as simple as a stolen vehicle for a ride to another jurisdiction and it is just opportunistic. And then there are other cases where there is an organized crime element to it where these vehicles are making their way to a shipping container and going overseas.

“If criminals are going to come to our city, we are going to have a high response to auto theft here.”

“The Middle East is a very popular spot in which a vehicle makes its way into a shipping container because of the high value of those vehicles and what they are worth across the sea.
“It’s a lucrative business and when the profit is there, it’s a very high attraction for someone to commit a crime.”
Bogart added, “The increasing demands of our police service related to auto thefts need appropriate attention. We’re making sure we’re aligning our enforcement measures with the level of investigation response with the province supporting this funding.
“We’re going to have the ability to disrupt and deter those who are going to target auto theft in our city.
“We’re committed to working collaboratively with our stakeholders and partners to combat auto theft.”
That includes an education component, indicated Bogart.
“We are also looking at preparing and creating pamphlets and video messaging for a public awareness campaign to involve the community.
“We have such a strong community engagement that we’re committed to educating and informing the community through our website and social media platforms.”
Bogart concluded the conversation by advising, “If criminals are going to come to our city, we are going to have a high response to auto theft here.”

BE AWARE OF THERMAL RUNAWAY

Have you been following the story of the fire aboard a Toronto subway car last Sunday (New Year’s Eve)?
One person suffered minor injuries after the fire quickly spread through one car of the train stopped at the Yonge-Sheppard station.
The fire started as a result of a failure of a lithium-ion battery pack in an E-bike.
After watching video of the scene, you have to wonder what if.
What if the fire had broken out inside one of the long stretches of tunnel at the north end of the Yonge Street line?

Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg told the media, “When lithium-ion batteries fail and ignite, the response is an intense, rapidly developing fire that poses an immediate risk to anyone in the area.”
We spoke with St. Thomas Fire Prevention Officer Matt Rumas for a local perspective and to get tips on how to deal with lithium-ion batteries found in a growing number of products from computers to appliances and E-scooters.
He advised the department is aware of only one such fire in the city at this time.

“All it takes is for one of them to fail and it goes into thermal runaway, which means it overheats and catches fire and the material that’s inside that battery over-pressurizes and that’s the gas you see shooting out.”

“There was one fire on Malakoff Street,” noted Rumas. “I believe it was last year, that was linked to an E-bike that was plugged in outside which caught fire after going into thermal runaway and did cause some damage to the structure.”
That’s a phrase we are going to hear more of in the future, ‘thermal runaway.’
Rumas went into more detail on exactly what that process entails.
The first sign of trouble is smoke or fog emanating from the battery pack.
“When you see that fog or that smoke, the battery pack has already failed. The battery packs are made up of multiple cells and each individual battery is just a little bigger than a double A battery.
“All it takes is for one of them to fail and it goes into thermal runaway, which means it overheats and catches fire and the material that’s inside that battery over-pressurizes and that’s the gas you see shooting out.
“Eventually when there is enough temperature and pressure, it combusts. Normally within 10 to 30 seconds, it will catch fire because it is a chemical reaction that is happening.”
That smoke or gas itself is potentially dangerous to anyone in the immediate area.
“There is a lot of hydrogen in it and we all know hydrogen is explosive but you also can get chlorine gas in it and fluorine gas that can come from these chemical reactions.
“There are about a half-dozen to a dozen gases that are actually given off.
“If you hear a hissing or popping sound and you see or smell any gas coming out, you need to get out of that room immediately and call 9-1-1.”
E-bikes and scooters are rapidly increasing in popularity because they are an economical way to get around the city.

“Not leaving lithium-ion products plugged in, especially when you’re not home or overnight. They should not be left in overnight to charge. And generally, don’t charge them up to the full 100 per cent capacity. If they overcharge, that’s when you can get into problems.”

Rumas noted, There are lots of good quality versions of these out there, whether it’s scooters, hoverboards or bicycles that have electric motors on them.
“The biggest thing with them is the replacement batteries, generally speaking, that are the problem. It’s people buying after-market battery packs or trying to repair the battery packs themselves if something has gone wrong.
“Too often right now, I think people are trying to repair these things themselves because it’s an economical way of doing things and we’re talking about electricity and pretty complicated circuitry.”
Rumas assured, “They can be very safe, it’s a matter of not messing around with them. So, whatever charger comes with the bike, use that charger. Don’t try to jury-rig your own way of doing things.”
Another tip from Rumas: your typical home fire extinguisher will not be effective should a fire break out.
“It’s only water, so dry chemical fire extinguishers won’t do anything to put these fires out because it is actually a chemical reaction so it needs a lot of water to actually get into those battery cells and keep them cool.”
Another tip from Rumas.
“Batteries should never, ever, ever go in the garbage.”
Instead take them to battery recycling drop-off spots, like the community recycling centre in St. Thomas on Edward Street along with numerous retail outlets.
“It’s all about responsible disposal.”
As for larger electric vehicles like cars and pick-up trucks, Rumas noted, “The number of electric vehicle fires is significantly less than your standard, combustion engine fires. But, when an EV fire does happen, it definitely makes the news because they are so difficult to put out.”
One final recommendation from Rumas.
“Not leaving lithium-ion products plugged in, especially when you’re not home or overnight. They should not be left in overnight to charge. And generally, don’t charge them up to the full 100 per cent capacity.
“If they overcharge, that’s when you can get into problems.”

BECAUSE YOUR STORY COUNTS

This past week the St. Thomas-Elgin Local Immigration Partnership (STELIP) released the results of its first Immigrant Survey conducted last year.
The survey was open to all immigrants who live or work in St. Thomas and Elgin county and that included permanent residents, international students, refugee claimants and temporary workers.

It’s important to note that the survey sample size – 99 participants – is not large enough to be a statistically significant representation of all immigrants in St. Thomas-Elgin and, in addition to some known gaps in respondents, there may be additional unknown gaps as well.
Nonetheless, these findings still provide important insight into the experiences of some immigrants in our community.
According to participants, the top challenges were the cost of living (34%), finding healthcare (28%), and finding work (24%).
The top suggested solutions included more affordable housing (39%), better programs for immigrants to find work (36%), and employer education on hiring and retaining immigrants (29%).
It is worth noting that 37% of respondents experienced discrimination in the past 12 months.
Almost all the respondents had used at least one service category, which included health, recreation, police, employment and education services.
The services with the highest positive ratings were language interpretation/translation (89% of users rated positively), local municipal government/bylaw (84% of users rated positively), and police (84% of users rated positively).
The service with the highest negative rating was transportation (76% of users rated negatively).
The hope is the results will be used by local service providers, municipalities, and other community groups to inform policy, planning, and programs.
The aim is to update the survey in two-year periods and, as such, we will be speaking with STELIP Manager Petrusia Hontar early next week to delve further into the survey results and her takeaway from the observations of participants.
We’ll have that conversation in this corner next week.

Related post:

St. Thomas municipal council asked to renew its commitment to addressing discrimination in the community

FOR THE CALENDAR

At Monday’s council meeting (Jan. 8) members will be asked to give final approval to the city’s 2024 operating and capital budgets.
The increase to the municipal tax levy this year will be 2.95 per cent.
The meeting begins at 5 p.m. in the council chamber at city hall or you can watch the live stream by following the link found here.

THE ECHO CHAMBER

In response to our item just before Christmas on high-density housing, John Beecroft passes along this observation.

“We certainly need to look at building up, instead of sprawling out over all of our prime farmland.
“Talbot Street would and could be a great place to start. We have a lot of space within the city that needs to be utilized, starting with replacing crumbling buildings on Talbot Street.
“Build more buildings similar to what is going up at the old Alma College site or across from Wendy’s.”

And thank you to all of the faithful readers who passed along Christmas and New Year’s wishes. They are all greatly appreciated.

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And a reminder, I can be heard weekday afternoons as news anchor and reporter on 94.1 myFM in St. Thomas. As always, your comments and input are appreciated.